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On the Political Incompetence of Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Hans-Georg Gadamer
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Extract

The conflict which has tended recently to crystallize in particular around the name of Martin Heidegger goes back a long way. Where do philosophers stand in relation to political and social reality? What assistance can their problems and insights offer the process of coming to terms with this reality? In the context of the discussions surrounding Farias's book I set out my own position in Paris in November 1987; the full text was later published in German under the heading “Return to Syracuse?” This title referred to the disappointment Plato felt in his own time when, at the invitation of the tyrant of Syracuse, that city's absolute ruler, he had twice gone to initiate the young prince in the basic principles of his thought concerning the just idea of the state and the just ordering of society. Things turned out badly and Plato had considerable difficulty getting back home again. Later still he was to suffer bitter disappointment when his intimate associate Dion, a member of the innermost circle of his academic community, was suddenly murdered by his own friends after heading a victorious operation to liberate Syracuse (one would like to know more about what lay behind that particular assassination).

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 46 , Issue 182 , June 1998 , pp. 3 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

Notes

1. “Zurück von Syrakus?,” in J. Altwegg (ed.), Die Heidegger Kontroverse (Frank furt am Main, 1988), pp. 176-179.

Translator's note: The most recent and complete version of this article has not yet been published in French or in English (see below, Sinn und Form, 1993).

Previous articles of Hans-Georg Gadamer on the same subject matter are as follows:

“Comme Platon à Syracuse: ‘Peut-être nous demande-t-on de renoncer définitive ment à penser?'” (traduction de Geneviève Carcopino), in Le nouvel Observa teur, n° 1211, 22-28 janvier 1988, p. 45.

“Züruck von Syrakus?”, in Jürg Altwegg, éd., Die Heidegger Kontroverse, Francfort s. M., Athenäum, 1988, p. 176-179.

“La responsabilità al singolare” (trad. Renato Cristin), in Aut Aut (Nuova serie), La Nuova Italia, Milano, Firenze, n° 226-227, juillet-octobre 1988, p. 40-45.

“Back From Syracuse?” (trad. J. McCumber), in Critical Inquiry, The University of Chicago Press, vol. 15, no. 2, 1989, p. 427-430.

“Uber die politische Inkompetenz der Philosophie,”in Sinn und Form: Beiträge zur Literatur, Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, 45e année, n° 1, janvier-février 1993, p. 5-12.

Cf. Etsuro Makita, Gadamer Bibliographie (1922-1994), Francfort s. M., (Berlin, New York, et. al.), Peter Lang 1995, p. 172 et 175, n° A88/01 et A88.14.